Two former University of Maine hockey players will be playing for their respective countries in the Four Nations Face-Off tournament in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12-20.
Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman will be playing for the United States and Nashville Predators winger Gustav Nyquist will be skating for Sweden.
The Four Nations Face-Off tourney features NHL players representing the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden.
It will be a seven-game tournament with each team playing three round-robin games. The two teams with the most points will square off in the championship game on Thursday, Feb. 20.
Both Swayman and Nyquist were finalists for the Hobey Baker Award while at UMaine, which is given to the top player in Division 1 college hockey. Nyquist was a two-time finalist for the award.
Swayman is 18-18-4 with the Bruins this season with a 2.98 goals-against average and an .898 save percentage. He is one of three goalies for Team USA along with Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Dallas’ Jake Oettinger.
All three goalies spent their college careers in Hockey East as Hellebuyck played for UMass Lowell and Oettinger for Boston University.
Swayman signed an eight-year, $66 million contract extension with Boston last October.
The 35-year-old Nyquist has notched nine goals and 11 assists in 53 games with the Predators. He is the team’s seventh-leading scorer.
He is coming off the best year of his pro career as he had 23 goals and 52 assists in 81 games for Nashville a year ago.
Nyquist, who won a silver medal with Sweden in the 2014 Winter Olympics and a gold in the World Championships in 2018, has appeared in 837 NHL regular season games and has 207 goals and 316 assists. He has six goals and 24 assists in 77 Stanley Cup playoff contests.
Swayman has posted a 97-51-19 record in his NHL career with the Bruins with a 2.49 GAA and a .914 save percentage. He has 15 career shutouts. He is 9-10 with a 2.38 GAA and a .922 save percentage in the playoffs.
The 26-year-old Swayman had an impressive playoff run a year ago with a 2.15 GAA and a .933 save percentage in 12 starts. He went 6-6.
Swayman won the Mike Richter Award given to the nation’s best collegiate goalie for his play in the 2019-20 season.
The Four Nations tournament will have four games in Montreal followed by three in Boston.
It begins on Wednesday at the Bell Center with Canada taking on Sweden at 8 p.m. That game will be televised on the TNT network.
Thursday’s game will involve the United States and Finland, also at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
On Saturday, Finland will face off against Sweden at 1 p.m. with the U.S. and Canada meeting at 8 p.m. Both will be televised on ABC.
The tournament moves to TD Garden in Boston for Monday games, pitting Canada against Finland at 1 p.m. and the United States against Sweden at 8 p.m. TNT will air both.
The championship game will be on Thursday at 8 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN.
